We booked the outbound Air France flight using Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles — the natural choice when flying Air France metal, and often more competitive than you'd expect on routes where Flying Blue offers short-term promo awards. Two economy seats that would have cost $1,532 in cash required 50,000 Flying Blue miles plus $325.60 in fees. After subtracting fees, the effective value was ~2.41¢ per point — not the 6–7¢ sweet spot of the best award plays, but well above a standard portal redemption on a direct Air France flight.

Two nights in the Latin Quarter, steps from the Sorbonne and a short walk from Notre-Dame. The Hôtel Jardin de Cluny isn't a chain property — it's a small, well-located boutique hotel — which made Chase Ultimate Rewards the right tool here: the portal books any hotel, not just loyalty program partners. The cash rate was $863.55 for two nights. We covered the bulk with 58,865 Chase points and paid $40 at the property. At ~1.4¢ per point, this isn't a points maximizer's redemption, but sometimes the right hotel is the right hotel regardless of the loyalty math.

The Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic is a proper lakefront property — the kind of place that would be expensive under any circumstances, and which Montreux doesn't have a great loyalty program presence for. Capital One Venture X through the travel portal handled it cleanly: 33,530 miles covered most of the $334.05 stay, with an $18 cash co-pay to top up. At roughly ~1¢ per point, it's a straightforward portal redemption — not glamorous, but it unlocked a property we wouldn't otherwise have access to through award programs. One night was exactly right before the Golden Pass departure the next morning.

We used Interlaken as a base for three nights and treated the surrounding valley as a day-trip network — train to Lauterbrunnen, walk among the waterfalls, continue up to Mürren or across to Grindelwald depending on what was running. (Late October = maintenance season; check schedules before assuming anything is open.) Hotel Krebs included breakfast, which matters more in Switzerland than most places given the cost of everything. The total cash rate was $928.30. We redeemed 74,760 Citi ThankYou points through the portal plus a $115.97 cash co-pay, and applied the $100 Citi Strata Premier annual hotel credit to reduce the original bill. At ~1.1¢ per point on the portal, the credit is what made this worth it — the net out-of-pocket after both came to under $120.

A pre-flight night at the Hyatt Regency at Zurich Airport is as close to a no-brainer as award travel gets: the property is connected directly to the terminal, the Category 5 rate is 17,000 points on Hyatt's fixed award chart, and the alternative is paying Swiss airport hotel prices in cash. The room would have cost $227.30. At ~1.34¢ per point, this isn't the highest-CPP redemption in the trip — but the convenience value on a long travel day is real. We woke up, walked to the gate.

The return is where this trip really earned its value. Two economy seats on American Airlines from Zurich to RDU via Philadelphia — cash price $2,830 — booked through Alaska Mileage Plan for just 45,000 miles plus $135.62 in fees. Alaska prices American Airlines partner awards on a fixed chart that is significantly lower than what American charges through its own AAdvantage program for the same seats. The math after fees: ~5.98¢ per point. This is the exact same principle as the Virgin Atlantic / Air France play on the Central Europe trip — always check what a partner program charges before booking through the operating airline's own currency.